The Los Angeles Lakers finally won without Lonzo Ball, taking down the Indiana Pacers in an ugly 99-86 affair at Staples Center on Friday night. After the game, fellow rookie Josh Hart took a playful swipe at the Crown Prince of Chino Hills, in whose absence the Purple and Gold are now 1-8.

“Take that, Lonzo,” Hart cracked. “We don’t need him.”

What they needed—especially with Brandon Ingram (ankle) and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope (Achilles) joining Ball (knee) on the bench—was Jordan Clarkson’s best game of the season (33 points, seven rebounds, seven assists), Larry Nance Jr’s sixth double-double this year (10 points, 11 rebounds) and the Pacers posting the league’s second-worst three-point shooting percentage of any team in 2017-18 (2-of-25, 8.0 percent).

“It’s just a great team win, especially to beat a team like that in that kind of a game, just a tough, grind-it-out, gritty game,” Hart continued. “So to not have Zo is always tough. But then to not have BI, to not have KCP was hard. But guys stepped up and we were able to pull it out.

“We have confidence when they’re not there, and when they’re in, we have all the confidence we have.”

The Lakers may have to carry whatever share of that confidence they can retain into Sunday’s game against the New York Knicks. If Ball’s balky left knee isn’t fit for practice on Saturday, he will likely have to sit out his matinee rematch with Kristaps Porzingis and company.